Eleven-year-old Tiph is pushing her little brother Phillip in his stroller when she sees an old lady gripping a fence as if close to collapsing. Tiph collects the woman’s dog and helps her to a seat at the nearby dollhouse store, where Gretel, a small doll, has been put on display in hopes of a Christmas sale. Although Gretel is vintage and valuable, collectors pass her by year after year. Gretel doesn’t want a collector—she wants a child.
Middle Grade Fiction
Pocket Bear
Rescued from a dumpster by alley cat (and narrator) Zephyrina, an old teddy bear finds himself delivered to Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. This unofficial toy repair and restoration effort is run by Dasha, a Ukrainian refugee, from the home where she lives with her mom.
The Forest of a Thousand Eyes
In 1941, Peggy’s modest world revolves around her parents, cousin and best friend Delia, and neighbor friends who live within walking distance of her family’s rural Iowa farm. But lately everything seems to be changing.
Sea Legs
Life aboard Janey’s parents’ sailboat, the Merimaid, has its ups and downs—sometimes literally. Janey (white) enjoys life at sea, especially the opportunity to travel, but seasickness, storms, and isolation make it challenging.
The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls
Expelled from her latest orphanage, Maggie (white) is dropped off at the Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls, where she joins fellow newcomers Nell (white) and Sofie (brown-skinned) in learning that the Institute’s dreary exterior is a front for a school that trains girls in the art of fighting crime.
Beasts
With the arrival of predatory creatures known simply as “the beasts” comes the collapse of society. With their mother dead—killed by a beast—13-year-old Abdi and his little sister, Alva, are on the move, searching for food and making their way toward the island where their father is working.
Scattergood
In 1941, Peggy’s modest world revolves around her parents, cousin and best friend Delia, and neighbor friends who live within walking distance of her family’s rural Iowa farm. But lately everything seems to be changing.
Bad Badger: A Love Story
Septimus is a fastidious, solitary badger living in a little cottage by the sea. Because he has spots instead of typical badger stripes on his nose, prefers the seaside to the traditional forest habitat of badgers, and likes drinking tea and listening to opera, he considers himself a “bad badger.” Sometimes he wonders if he even is a badger.
Will’s Race for Home
After decades of backbreaking, thankless sharecropping work in Texas, Will’s father, who was enslaved as a child, is “grim and dull,” and Will longs for a closer relationship with him. When they hear of the Oklahoma Land Rush, they recognize it as the chance of a lifetime. With a wagon of supplies pulled by their mule, Belle, Will and his dad join thousands of others racing to stake out their own land.
Rabbit Rabbit
Cousins Bee and Alice (white, age 12) reunite after many years for their grandparents’ 50th anniversary in late 2019.